NSF I-Corps Hub (Track 1): Mid-South Region

NSF I-Corps 中心（轨道 1）：中南部地区

• 批准号: 2229521
• 负责人: Padma Raghavan
• 金额: $ 1500万
• 依托单位: Vanderbilt University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Cooperative Agreement
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2027-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2229521&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Corps; Hub; Track; Mid

The broader impact/commercial potential of this NSF I-Corps Hubs project is the development of a sustainable, inclusive, innovation ecosystem that will impart shared economic prosperity across the US Mid-South region. The Mid-South Hub’s formative, evidence-driven approach may inform how inclusive innovation ecosystems can be established in regions with nascent economic activity. This knowledge will augment team preparation, maximizing the value extracted from I-Corps training. The Hub will further amplify the downstream successes and sustainability of deep technology ventures, including grant acquisition, fundraising, sustainable revenues, and net-positive liquidity events. Success will be leveraged to influence innovation culture at regional institutions, leading to the incentivization of enterprising faculty, students, and staff. The diverse leadership team and inclusive bench of instructors will increase the Hub’s ability to connect to innovators and mentors of all backgrounds, including those who are disadvantaged or underrepresented. These efforts will include building commercialization capacity at underrepresented institutions. Evidence from the deliberate implementation of a democratized organizational structure will be evaluated for its capability to encourage and preserve the cognitive proximity of ecosystem members. This knowledge will be disseminated via the National Innovation Network to drive translational impacts and economic development, shaping the future of American innovation.This I-Corps Hubs project is based on the development of a use-inspired incubator that uses data-driven approaches to develop best practices, influence economic policy, inspire adoption of inclusive approaches to innovation, and instruct future programmatic investments. Currently, a gap exists in understanding how regional innovation clusters can unify to drive the development of a prolific innovation ecosystem. Addressing this gap will enable policymakers and government agencies to implement evidence-based approaches to inform programmatic investments and maximize technology commercialization, economic development, and overall national innovation readiness. This consortium of diverse, deep technology-producing institutions from disparate locations within the Mid-South region will leverage the I-Corps program to catalyze technological commercialization, spur economic development, and inform the future of inclusive American innovation. The Hub will prioritize a formative, longitudinal assessment to iteratively optimize key activities, including team recruitment, Regional and National I-Corps training, upstream changes in university innovation culture, downstream impacts on successful commercialization, and an inclusive innovation corridor across the Mid-South. This effort will advance technology transfer from academic institutions into entrepreneurial ventures that seed emergent, regional ecosystems. The data-driven, performance improvement approach will ensure best practices are evidence-based and create a model for other regions seeking to induce inclusive innovation cluster development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

NSF I-Corps Hubs 项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发一个可持续、包容性的创新生态系统，该生态系统将在美国中南地区实现共享经济繁荣。可以告知如何在经济活动刚刚兴起的地区建立包容性创新生态系统，这些知识将增强团队准备，最大限度地提高从 I-Corps 培训中获取的价值，该中心将进一步扩大深度技术企业的下游成功和可持续性。收购、筹款、可持续收入和净正流动性事件的成功将被用来影响地区机构的创新文化，从而激励富有进取精神的教师、学生和工作人员。该中心与各种背景的创新者和导师（包括那些处于不利地位或代表性不足的人）建立联系的能力将包括在代表性不足的机构中建立商业化能力。表彰其鼓励和维护生态系统成员的认知接近性的能力，这些知识将通过国家创新网络传播，以推动转化影响和经济发展，塑造美国创新的未来。该 I-Corps 中心项目基于该开发。一个以使用为导向的孵化器，使用数据驱动的方法来开发最佳实践，影响经济政策，鼓励采用包容性的创新方法，并指导未来的计划性投资。目前，在理解区域创新集群如何联合起来推动方面存在差距。的发展解决这一差距将使政策制定者和政府机构能够实施基于证据的方法，为计划投资提供信息，并最大限度地提高技术商业化、经济发展和整体国家创新准备度。这个由来自不同地点的多元化、深入的技术生产机构组成的联盟。中南地区的创新中心将利用 I-Corps 计划来促进技术商业化，刺激经济发展，并为美国包容性创新的未来提供信息。该中心将优先进行形成性纵向评估，以迭代优化包括团队在内的关键活动。招聘、区域和国家 I-Corps 培训、大学创新文化的上游变化、对成功商业化的下游影响以及整个中南地区的包容性创新走廊。这项努力将推动技术从学术机构转移到培育新兴企业的创业企业。数据驱动的绩效改进方法将确保最佳实践以证据为基础，并为其他寻求促进包容性创新集群发展的地区创建一个模型。该奖项是 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。